Compliant actuation for energy efficient impedance modulation
David J. Braun, Salil S. Apte, Olzhas Adiyatov, Abhinav Dahiya, Neville Hogan
Abstract
Energy efficient compliant actuation is the missing ingredient and key enabler of next-generation autonomous systems, domestic robots, prosthetic devices, orthotic devices, and wearable exoskeletons, to name a few. For all these devices, one would wish to develop actuators enabling wide range impedance modulation with low energy cost. Using conventional and biologically-inspired compliant actuation, previous research led to functional devices but with high energy cost. Here we introduce a minimalistic compliant actuator to realize impedance modulation with low energy cost. Using this actuator we demonstrate stiffness augmentation in human-machine collaboration. We argue that the non-biologically-inspired actuation concept presented here may effectively complement a biological system, by restoring or extending its functionality, with negligible energy cost.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2016_compliantactuati,
title = {Compliant actuation for energy efficient impedance modulation},
author = {David J. Braun and Salil S. Apte and Olzhas Adiyatov and Abhinav Dahiya and Neville Hogan},
booktitle = {ICRA 2016},
year = {2016}
}